Industry

Your Next Big Hire Should Be a Broadcaster

August 1, 2016

Facebook Live is quickly becoming the mechanism du jour of the social media set. Snapchat is still all the rave. Podcasting’s second surge seems to have taken a bigger hold than anyone expected, and video content still drives more engagement on average than any other social play.

What does that tell us? Your marketing team’s next hire should be a broadcaster.

It’s not enough to say you need a content specialist or a storyteller; you need someone who knows how to present ideas in a logical order on camera or behind a microphone. You need someone who understands lighting, video editing, capturing emotion and more. You need a combination of David Letterman and Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles and Andy Warhol.

Easier said than done, right? Wrong.

Certainly, I’m biased. I was a radio/television major in college. I’ve been behind the mic and camera and occasionally in front of the camera throughout the years. I know how to hold an audience’s attention with nothing but the (quite beautiful, if I do say so myself) sound of my own voice for some time. But I’m not special. There are lots of talented folks out there who have done it or can do it.

A Case Study

The Parklands of Floyds Fork is a nature preserve and extension of the Louisville, Ky., parks system. They offer green spaces and nature areas for the public, environmental programming, summer camps for kids and more. They are also a nonprofit. On the surface, they don’t appear to be an organization that would get a high degree of attention through the social web.

But they hired a broadcaster. Well, to be fair, they hired a summer intern, but he’s one who is an absolute steal because he has the interest and acumen to be on camera.

The quirky videos have been embraced locally and are making the rounds on social media. (There’s an episode two and three out already!) They bring an interesting dose of humanity and humor to an organization that could come across as sort of blah if they just focused on straight, professional content about the great green space they offer.

Certainly, still image and written content can still be incredibly effective for a brand, but when the metrics keep telling us that video content wins, shouldn’t we have someone behind it who knows how to make it so?

To find your next big marketing hire, look for someone with a background in multimedia production, radio/television or broadcasting. If they can hold someone’s attention on camera for more than 30 seconds, know how to edit audio or video and bring a “reel” to the interview as well as a resume, you’ve got something.

Who handles your video content? If the answer is no one, drop us a line. We can help.